


if i only could hold you again

by softkitties



Series: aos s7 countdown fics [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post Season 6, post 6x13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24383533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softkitties/pseuds/softkitties
Summary: Fitzsimmons must invent time travel to save their friends, and the whole Earth.Part three of four fics counting down until Season 7 starts.
Relationships: Enoch & Jemma Simmons, Enoch & Leo Fitz, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: aos s7 countdown fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757803
Kudos: 19





	if i only could hold you again

“What do we have to do?”

Isiah - well, Enoch, really - had been staring at Fitz and Simmons seriously. It had taken a moment for him to speak up, and in that moment Simmons found herself feeling very impatient and bitter. Of course there was another life threatening event happening to the two of them; they just can’t get a break. Like Fitz had said many times, maybe they were cursed.

“Change the natural course of your lives forever,” Enoch had said in his monotone voice, and immediately Fitz and Jemma exchanged an exhausted glance, groaning almost in unison.

Maybe Enoch hadn’t been wrong.

Fitz had been standing and watching the camera feed in the temple when it happened. He had nearly jumped backwards in shock as the camera flashed orange and then nothing. Static.

Simmons had been nearby, and when he flinched back she raced over to see what had happened. The second she heard the noise from the monitor, her eyes had widened and her expression had matched Fitz’s one of shock.

“Fitz, what...” she had murmured. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Fitz had replied, obviously trying to keep his voice quiet and calm. “I don’t know, everything seemed fine, they were recovering after Sarge died, and then-”

He broke off, making a small explosion gesture with his hands. Simmons had felt like a stone had been dropped in her stomach. May, Daisy, Mack, Yoyo, Deke, they had all been in that temple. 

Enoch approached the two, eyebrows raised in what Simmons guessed was surprise. “The temple has been targeted by the Chronicoms and blown up,” he had said. “It is even more pressing that we find out how to travel back in time.”

Simmons’ breath had caught in her throat. All of her friends. Gone, just like that. She was hardly aware of Fitz’s arms around her or his head buried in her shoulder. She had felt both no and all emotions at the same time. She couldn’t tell if she felt numb or like sobbing.

“When you two find out how to travel into the past, you will then be able to save your friends,” Enoch sounded like he was trying to help, but it didn’t work.

“When?” Fitz had echoed. He took a step away from Simmons to glare at Enoch. She rested her hands on the desk with the monitor so she could balance. “ _When?!_ ” He scoffed again. “There is no _when_ , because there is no travelling to the past, you useless, bloody, God damn _android_!”

Enoch slightly cocked his head to the side, not looking at all offended. “I am not an android. I am a Chronicom,” he had said. “And with both of you working together, I am sure time travel is possible.”

“It has to be,” Simmons said quietly, looking up at Fitz. “It has to be, or all of our friends are dead. We need to try.”

\--

“Get the jump drive ready.”

They’d done it. They’d solved the mysteries of time travel.

They’d hoped so, at least.

Simmons heard Fitz and Enoch getting everything ready. It had been so long since either of them had seen their friends. She nodded at Piper from the plane ramp. She and the others were off the plane now. There was a slight spark in her eye as she nodded back. “Please save them,” she had murmured.

“I will.”

The ramp began to go up, but just before it closed, Simmons heard Fitz.

“Jemma, wait.”

She turned to Fitz with a surprised expression. “Is something wrong with the jump drive?” She asked. “Will we not be able to go back?”

“No,” Fitz’s voice had been low and quiet, guilty even. “No, you’ll be able to go back.”

Simmons had half smiled at Fitz in an incredulous manner. “I don’t think I’m following. Me? You mean us?”

“No, you,” Fitz had sighed. “The Chronicoms, they- uh, they have our brain scans. We can’t know where we are.”

Simmons’ incredulous expression turned into one of disbelief. “What, so you’ll just leave? You’re not doing that, Fitz, not after all of this.”

“I have to,” he had murmured. “I have to, or you won’t be able to save the world.”

“No, I can’t do this on my own,” Simmons ignored how her voice sounded more like a whimper. “I can’t be split up from you, not again.”

“We can talk over comms,” Fitz’s eyes were determined and gentle, and Simmons had felt like she was thrust back into the containment pod all over again, but this time she would have no clue where Fitz was.

“You can’t just leave me,” she whispered. “You can’t.”

“I have to, Jemma,” he murmured back. 

Her eyes had stung with tears as she brought him in for a hug, burying her face in his shoulder. “I just wish we could have a break.”

“I know, me too,” there was a chuckle in Fitz’s voice. “Maybe after this is all over, we could find somewhere to live, somewhere away from SHIELD.”

“Yeah,” Simmons’ voice had been muffled. “Like a cottage?”

There was no verbal reply from Fitz, but she felt his head nod in agreement, his chin brushing her hair. 

“And I can still talk to you, and help pilot the Zephyr,” he had said finally.

She took a step back from him, staring into his bright blue eyes. She had felt tears running down her cheeks. He kissed her on the forehead, and then on the cheek, and then stepped away. She held tight onto his hand, before realising and reluctantly letting go.

She watched him step off of the Zephyr, watched him as he turned to look at her with his eyes shining with unshed tears and watched where he would be even when he couldn’t see his face, when the ramp had fully gone up and when the ship had launched into the sky.

Fitz was in the present, soon the future, and they were apart from each other once more, but soon Simmons would be seeing May, Daisy, Deke, Mack and Yoyo again. And once Enoch was done, they wouldn’t be the only fallen agents she’d be seeing once more.

\--

Jemma Simmons now stands in the upgraded Zephyr One, with Daisy, Mack, Yoyo and Deke. She tries to hide how overjoyed she feels to see them all, though she’s sure they can still see it in her eyes. 

“How did you do all of this?” Daisy asks, looking awestruck around at the Zephyr’s cargo hold.

Simmons looks back at her, gaze calm and controlled. “We had help,” she says quietly. “And we had time.”

She looks over at Mack, who rests Yoyo down onto one of the seats. “Give Yoyo her breathing apparatus,” she instructs. “Set the chamber temperature to minus 68 degrees.”

Deke looks around in wonder. “Where’s Fitz?” he questions in a soft voice.

Simmons tries her hardest to stop her voice or her calm demeanour from breaking. “I don’t know,” she says simply.

"I can't know."


End file.
